How Long Does It Take To Beat Gears 5: Hivebusters?
Back in October, Microsoft and The Coalition surprised Gears of War fans with the franchise's first story DLC, Hivebusters. The gist of the content is players will take the main cast of Gears 5's Escape mode on a whirlwind trip through various locations as they shoot anything that moves. While story DLC is new territory for the Gears series, critics seem to agree that content delivers a fun experience. Still, you might wonder if the DLC provides enough bang for your buck. After all, it is $20, which is a steep asking price for DLC.
The vanilla Gears 5 provides a hefty 11-12 hour campaign, not including multiplayer or the aforementioned Escape mode. However, Gears 5 is a $60 game, so since Hivebusters is 1/3 the price, it must also be 1/3 the length, correct? In an ideal world, that would be the case, but this is not an ideal world. Keep reading to find out how long Hivebusters truly is.
Busted in less than an afternoon
Unlike the main campaign of Gears 5, Hivebusters is a tight, linear affair that keeps you on an even tighter leash. You are there to bust hives, not map them, so exploration is pretty much neutered. Not completely gone, just at a minimum. This keeps the action and story running at a breakneck pace, but at the cost of game length.
Outlets such as Games Radar, IGN, and Windows Central estimate that Hivebusters' campaign will last most audiences three hours at most, while HowLongtoBeat.com — which uses player polls — places its estimate at just over two hours.
However, these approximations only apply to the DLC's campaign. If you are in the mood for a completionist run, you'll still have plenty of achievements to unlock, some of which might require multiple playthroughs, or at the very least revisiting past chapters (there are only six) to collect stuff you missed. The amount of time it takes to acquire each achievement is based solely on your skill level, especially since one involves beating the game on Insane difficulty.
Still, if you're only into Hivebusters for the plot, you won't need more than an afternoon to beat it.